160 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



philus broke to pieces the statues at Alexandria, 

 he found some which were hollow, and which 

 were so placed against a wall, that the priest 

 could conceal himself behind them; and address 

 the ignorant spectators through their mouths. 



Even in modern times, speaking-machines have 

 been constructed on this principle. The figure is 

 frequently a mere head placed upon a hollow 

 pedestal, which, in order to promote the decep- 

 tion, contains a pair of bellows, a sounding-board, 

 a cylinder and pipes supposed to represent the 

 organs of speech. In other cases these are dis- 

 pensed with, and a simple wooden head utters its 

 sounds through a speaking trumpet. At the 

 court of Charles II., this deception was exhibited 

 with great effect by one Thomas Irson, an 

 Englishman; and when the astonishment had 

 become very general, a popish priest was dis- 

 covered by one of the pages in an adjoining 

 apartment. The questions had been proposed to 

 the wooden figure by whispering into its ear, and 

 this learned personage had answered them all 

 with great ability, by speaking through a pipe in 

 the same language in which the questions were 

 proposed. Professor Beckmann informs us that 

 children and women were generally concealed 

 either in the juggler's box or in the adjacent 

 apartment, and that the juggler gave them every 

 assistance by means of signs previously agreed 

 upon. When one of these exhibitions was shown 

 at Gottingen, the Professor was allowed, on the 

 promise of secrecy, to witness the process of 

 deception. He saw the assistant in another 

 room, standing before the pipe with a card in his 

 hand, upon which the signs agreed upon had 



